This disclosure relates to providing self-voice feedback in communications headsets.
A communications headset, suitable for use in multi-way communications over a telecommunications system, whether wired or wireless, generally includes a microphone for detecting near-end speech uttered by a wearer of the headset. In high noise environments, the microphone also picks up ambient noise, for example, speech uttered by people in close proximity of the headset wearer, and wind noise caused by air moving past the microphone. These noises, if transmitted to a far-end party to a phone call, interfere with the auditory quality of the conversation between the headset wearer and the far-end party.
A wearer of a communications headset with ear cups that occlude the wearer's ears will experience an effect, commonly called the “occlusion effect,” which causes the wearer to perceive his voice as having over-emphasized lower frequencies and under-emphasized higher frequencies. In addition to making the wearer's voice sound lower to himself, the removal of the higher frequency sounds from human voice also makes the wearer's voice less intelligible to himself.